He said Katherine suffered a bleeding nose and Janice was left with a painful hand after Morgan shoved her to the ground.

Mr Richardson said Morgan had become enraged when he saw stepson Sean after leaving the pub.

The prosecutor added: “I don’t know if trouble had been blowing up, but the very sight of Sean seemed to cause him to lose his temper.”

Morgan’s lawyer, Cheryl Clark, said her client had been having “some difficulty” with his stepchildren before the attack on July 31.

She explained: “Shortly prior to this, there had been significant damage to some belongings as a result of a party he had been unaware of. It sparked a great deal of tension between Mr Morgan and the two children.”

Ms Clark said Morgan was a first offender who was “embarrassed by his behaviour”.

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said he appreciated that Morgan, of Tomatin, Inverness-shire, was in a “difficult situation” with his stepchildren. But he told the accused: “This is not the way to behave.

“I suspect that if your tolerance had not been lowered by a few drinks, you would not have behaved in the manner described.”